Fairy Gardens for Beginners: No-Sew Pennant Flags

My favorite thing in the world is a craft that you can make over and over again for different occasions. For this, pennant flags reign supreme.

Not sure what pennant flags are? I didn’t either, for a long time. I usually referred to them as “Those triangle things” that I saw in people’s homes. The more I saw them, the more I liked them. And the more I liked them, the more I had to make them.

This is a pennant flag.

So, the other day I settled in for a long afternoon of crafting. I popped in The Lorax and went through my usual trial and error of figuring out how to make something. It was messy, but in the end, it came together.

If you’re in a bind for decorations, these can be whipped up in about ten minutes in real-world sizes. Fairy garden sizing requires a little more precision, but it still gets done very quickly.

You will need:

Fabric (2 or 3 types, preferably, but 1 will do)

Scissors

2 Twigs

A hot glue gun

Twine (or yarn, or you can braid thread together to make it thicker)

Cardboard (or thick paper, or very steady hands and acute eyes)

For those of you new to crafting, a hot glue gun will run you well under $15 and are worth it if you think you want to get into making your own stuff. They are hugely useful for just about everything, and I highly recommend buying one if you don’t already have one.

First, set your glue gun to start heating up. After this, you’ll need to have a pattern for your pennants. To make this, grab some cardboard and measure how big you imagine each flag being. Draw a triangle of this size on the cardboard, then cut out. Or, you can do what I did and freehand it.

Second, you’ll take your fabric and fold one section of it. At the top of the fold, place the top of your cardboard triangle. Cut into the fabric, and at the end you should have a piece of fabric that is essentially two triangles.

Third, you’ll cut a length of twine that is long enough to hold all of the pennants without leaving too much extra space (roughly 4-6 inches usually works for me). Fold the pennant over the twine and line up each side of the triangle to match up.

Fourth, you’ll take your glue gun and drop a tiny dot of glue (I do mean tiny) in the center of the inside of each pennant. Then, fold the top portion of the pennant down and hold for several seconds. Do this to each one, then move the pennants around until they are resting on the desired section of the twine.

Lastly, you’ll take one of your twigs and use your glue gun to leave a line of glue near the top. Press one end of the twine into the glue. Do the same with the other twig and the other end of the twine. Let the glue dry, then find a special spot in your fairy garden for this beauty!

My favorite thing about the pennants is that they add a pop of color to the garden, which is nice since I use twigs and other natural items for mine and therefore don’t get a lot of bright colors.

If your pennants don’t turn out exactly straight or perfectly triangular, don’t fret about it. The beauty in fairy gardens lies in the imperfections. The more natural it looks, the better, and mistakes are always natural.

There are, of course, other ways to make a pennant flag. You could choose to sew it if you’re more of a purist or if you have thread and needles or don’t want to bother with a glue gun. But it seemed inauthentic for me to post about sewing these when I almost always glue them.

If you make pennants a different way, then feel free to comment your method here or leave a link to your own blog post about it!

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